POLINA (Polina, Danser Sa Vie)
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A production EVERYBODY ON DECK POLINA (Polina, danser sa vie) A film by Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj With Anastasia Shevtsova, Niels Schneider, Juliette Binoche, Jérémie Bélingard, Aleksei Guskov Running time: 112' International Sales International Publicity TF1 Studio Wolf Consultants 1, quai du Point du Jour Gordon Spragg, Laurin Dietrich 92100 Boulogne Billancourt Michael Arnon Tél : 00 33 1 41 41 21 68 Tél. +49 157 7474 9724 [email protected] [email protected] www.tf1international.com www.wolf-con.com French distributor UGC Distribution French release November 16, 2016 1 SYNOPSIS Trained from an early age by rigorous, perfectionist Professor Bojinski, Polina is a promising classic dancer. She is just about to join the prestigious Bolchoï Ballet when she discovers contemporary dance. That throws everything into question on a profound level. Polina leaves it all behind and moves to France to work with famous choreographer Liria Elsaj. Despite her determination and hard work to the point of obsession, Polina just can't seem to break through. So she moves to Anvers in search of work - and a new life. 2 Interview with Valérie Müller & Angelin Preljocaj What was it exactly that touched you in Bastien Vivès' graphic novel, to the point of wanting to make it into a movie? Angelin Preljocaj: What interested me was the path she took. How the fragilities and weaknesses of a person can eventually be a springboard for creativity and success. From the time I began to dance, I have seen tons of dancers. Some very talented, others less. And it turns out that it's not always the most talented who have careers. Some are astounding and then suddenly burn out - that happens to both dancers and choreographers. It's a kind of longevity, obstinacy and endurance that gives certain artists their power. When the graphic novel came out, I found it very realistic in that respect. Valérie Müller: Beyond the magnificent graphic art, what I thought was fabulous was the way she completely avoided the clichés you usually see in stories about classical dancers, where they are always anorexic victims of rivalry and competition. For once, we are in a world of young people who are working and struggling with moral and physical difficulties. We see them living and partying. It's very real. Valérie, you wrote the adaptation, which is very faithful in certain "frames" but differs when it comes to the narration. VM: It's true that in the comic book, certain things were brought up but weren't really anchored down. There were Russian names, for example, but we were never really sure if we were in Russia! I wanted to flesh it out and give it more realism, especially by developing Polina's parents and their social class. That modest upbringing was a reference to several personalities in the dance world. Angelin came from that, as well as Pina Bausch and Noureev... We wanted to insist on the idea that when you have nothing, you still have a body, and the only thing the expression of a body requires is work! You also changed the path Polina takes. Instead of becoming a prima ballerina, she becomes an up-and- coming choreographer. AP: That was almost a feminist stance! The fact that the choreographer she meets is a woman is no accident either. We have a lot of prima ballerinas, but there are very few women choreographers. It's like the film business, which doesn't have enough female filmmakers. It was important to us that Polina's path be the path of a person who is master of her own life and makes it happen - that she takes her place in the world of art. The choreographer played by Juliette Binoche says in the film, "all my work expresses the absent and the missing." Is that you speaking through her character, Angelin ? AP: Ah, for that… ask the Missus! VM: It's true that when I wrote that character, I drew a lot of inspiration from Angelin. He has written many duets which ask that question of impossible fusion, searching for "the other." AP: That comes from Plato's Symposium. He says love exists because we have been divided in two and are searching for the missing half. The quest for love is thus the drive to find the missing part. It's true that I have often used that idea in the choreography of certain duets. Juliette spent weeks watching me work to build her character. Juliette Binoche was a dancer who worked with Akram Khan. Was she an obvious choice for the role of Liria ? VM: Yes, because in addition to her immense talent as an actress, she had that dancing experience, which gave her a strong relationship to the body. Playing a choreographer was probably fairly logical for her, like a sort of continuity. AP: And a challenge, too! She worked on her dancing every day for six months, because we wanted everyone who we see dancing in the film to be dancing for real. 3 Were you certain that you needed a real dancer to play Polina? VM: To be honest, we began by searching for actresses who had trained as dancers. But we soon realized that if it had been a few years since they had stopped dancing, their level wouldn't be sufficient anymore. AP: We auditioned almost 300 girls in Europe. We were constantly confronted by the problem of dancers who were perfect for ballet, but less so for contemporary dance - or they were excellent dancers all around but less comfortable when it came to acting. So we said to ourselves that we had to go look for her in Russia. We went to Moscow, and then Saint Petersburg. I think we saw 600 dancers, all in all. And you found Anastasia Shevtsova! VM: In addition to her abilities as a dancer, she had a very powerful look on screen - that little something extra that hints of mystery. She learned French for the film. Angelin created the final duet with and for her. It was powerful experiencing that adventure with her. AP: Polina is full of Anastasia's personality. She is reserved and yet very strong. We let her fully embrace the character, with her intense gaze and her unique way of seeing the world... In this film, a lot of the emotions are expressed through the body and the eyes. It's not a very talky film! For the role of Adrien, it was the opposite path: an actor takes up dancing. Did you include Niels Schneider in your show Retour à Berratham (2015) to prepare him for his role as a dancer? AP: Exactly! I was working on Retour à Berratham and doing preproduction for the film at the same time. When we chose Niels to act in the film, I wanted to include him in the show so that he could live with the dance troupe for a few months. I wasn't sure he would be available, because the creative process requires four or five months of work, which is a lot longer than a film shoot. But he immediately understood our idea and made himself available to do both. What's more, his screen tests with Anastasia were fabulous. He was the one who destabilized her the most. VM: I have to add that Niels is extremely intelligent and has colossal physical memory. We were blown away! AP: Jérémie Bélingard came to mind after we had worked together at the Opera of Paris. He is brilliant and endearing. We had to do some screen tests, but he turned out to be very relaxed and natural. That young man has enormous potential and has a generous spirit. Co-directing a film is relatively unusual. How did you divide up the work? AP: Valérie wrote the screenplay and I was assigned to the editing. For the shoot, we agreed to co-direct, with fairly well-defined fields of action. Actually, everything got a bit mixed up on the set. VM: We'd decided to split up the roles so that I would take care of directing the actors and Angelin would be more on the scenic direction. But it all seemed to fall through... In the end, the fact that we trusted each other meant that we ended up agreeing on all the decisions we had to take. Why did you choose to film in scope ? VM: Because of arms! Scope allows you to keep both fully outstretched arms within a shot! And for duets, you can have both bodies together in one wide shot. AP: There is a dance in space that is more visibly evident in scope. It communicates what is going on between the bodies. In a more restricted space, you are focused on only one body. That was the advantage of scope: encompassing two bodies in the same space. VM: Especially since the other big question was: would we film the dancing in detail or as a whole? We ended up emphasizing detail in the rehearsal work and filming the dances themselves in sequences of wider shots that breathed more, with more place for space. 4 Filming dance is a particular kind of challenge. Angelin, are you comfortable with that? AP: Yes, but it's always heartbreaking in the edit when you're trying not to cut up the movement too much… I learned a lot when I did L’Annonciation (2003), as well as when I collaborated with Valérie and Olivier Assayas, who made Eldorado (2008). Did you have any dance films in mind when you were in preproduction? AP: Yes, of course.